Rotary Club pledges $300,000 to fuel CV auto shop

Things are revving up at Clayton Valley Charter High School’s auto shop, thanks to a $300,000 grant from the Rotary Club of Clayton Valley.

Club president Dave Kemnitz, who owns D & H Auto Repair with two shops in Concord, recognized that the state of auto repair instruction was broken at the high school level.

“With no new blood coming into the industry, we find ourselves in a position where the average age of a shop owner or journey level technician is 56 years old,” said Kemnitz. “With more than 60,000 jobs available, we see the need to put fire in the bellies of young people. It’s become necessary to grow our own help.”

The beneficiary of the upgrade, CVCHS shop teacher John Ouimet, is understandably excited: “There have been very little updates to the program since the early 1960s,” he said. “For example, we can’t even service many of the tires on newer vehicles.”

Ouimet, who came to teach at Clayton 10 years ago after a career in engineering, sees the upgrades as a way for his students to get a leg up on further training and employment.

“Our program, even with older equipment, is still viable, but can only get better,” said Ouimet. “This will give the students a better tool kit to start with and allow them to move up the employment ladder quicker.”

Ouimet teaches two intro and one advanced auto shop class, while also teaching Principles of Engineering in the Engineering Academy at CVCHS.

One of the real positives from the planned improvements, says Kemnitz, is the issue of sustainability, a major concern for Rotary International. “Currently, there are only 20 high schools in California who can even qualify for automotive industry grant money. This will put Clayton Valley in the running to be certified to qualify for these grants.”

Raising the money was relatively easy for Kemnitz and his wife and business partner, Mary Kemnitz. “Over 90 percent of the money is pledged from phone calls to the business associates we’ve done work with over the years. When we told them what it was for, they opened their checkbooks and jumped in.”

Some donors wrote large checks, while others donated computers, monitors, software and other equipment. One prominent Concord auto dealership offered a car. Many of the donors prefer to remain anonymous.

One upgrade the donations will provide is a computer repair order program. Previously, with no computer in class, students had to handwrite repair orders.

“Since the advanced students grade is dependent on the work they do during the semester, this will give them a way to understand and learn the process much better, and it will give me a more accurate look at what they’ve done,” Ouimet says.

Another outcome of the upgrades is that Ouimet will find himself in need of more training. “It will make me work harder,” he said, “but I don’t have a problem with that since it will make my job so much more rewarding.”

The project will take about a year-and-half to two years for everything to happen, and should increase student interest. Next on the list for the Rotary Club will be to upgrade the program at Concord High School.

The current yearly budget for the auto program at Clayton is $700, which amounts to less than $10 per student.